A New Abare Will Rise
by The Threat
Summary: [Abaranger] In this sequel to 'The Next Abare', things will be cleared out, and and a new battle will emerge...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Abaranger" is owned by Toei Company

* * *

After the abduction of Ranru, the Abrangers, as was the rest of the gang, were devastated. Not one of them knew, or even understood what it could be that got the red and black guy behind her abduction, to do as he did. At first, it all even seemed to be a much bigger deal than that guy who had somehow restored the dark armor, and claimed it as his own. Once that came back to mind, it only raised more questions.

"If that red and black guy is somehow related to that man..." Ryunnosuke started, "... then why did he turn against him?"

"Perhaps he found out about his true motives!" Ryouga decided.

"Which ever those may be." Yukito remarked.

Asuka thought about this: "He's right! What do we know about this dark armored man anyway? Or how do we even know that the red and black guy is related?"

"He kept calling him 'Al'." Ryouga replied, "He knows his name, so that must mean they have a history together!"

"Say..." Kera started, referring to Nakadai, "Weren't you with that man before we found you?"

"Yes." Nakadai replied, "But I've never seen his face. Or at least, not that I can remember."

"Human!" Top Galer started, "Is it possible that he used something to keep us docile?"

"You mean he drugged us?" Nakadai replied, "That's possible."

"Drugged?" Mahoro seemed to have some difficulty understanding this, "By that you mean..."

"He must have given us something that would keep us calm." Nakadai explained, "It's possible that as an after effect we only remember but a few things."

"One of those not being the location of that hide-out." Ryouga sighed.

"Oh!" Yatsudenwani started, "But aren't we forgetting something about my love?"

"That's right!" Yukito agreed, "Emeri! How are you doing on finding her?"

"It's weird!" she replied, "For one brief moment, I thought I had her located, but then I lost her again!"

"I even thought I could talk to her earlier..." Ptera added, "But... suddenly, something stopped me from talking!"

"As if you were disconnected?" Yukito asked her.

"I... I don't know..." Ptera answered.

"He must be very smart to pull this off!" Asuka relised, "He must have been prepared!"

"That still doesn't explain what he wants with her." Nakadai reminded everyone.

"Ryou-chan!" Mai had entered the room, "You found Ranru yet?"

"Mai-chan!" Ryouga sounded concerned, "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I couldn't sleep." Mai answered, "And neither can Mikoto."

"She probably misses Ranru too." Mahoro sighed.

"All the more reason to find her." Asuka suddenly said, "We must find her, let that red and black guy get what he deserves, and stop that dark armored man from whatever he's doing!"

Everyone in the room agreed. Particulary Yatsudenwani was cheerfull about this: "All right!!! Can I help you find her?"

"It's not safe for you to do so!" Ryouga told him, "Remember how easy it is for us to destroy a Torinoid? And since this guy is stronger than all of us together, how easy do you think it will be for him to destroy you?"

Yatsudenwani gulped. Keeping that in mind, he decided to not get involved with this. Much more than needed anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

Somewhere far away from the Dino House, there was a building in construction. Either that, or it's a building being restored from that last giant monster fight. Inside that building, on the top floor, we find Ranru, put against a pillar. Slowly, she woke up. She has no recollection of how she fell asleep at all. She only vaguely remembered how this guy in red and black had grabbed her, and took her away. What happened after that was all too blurry. She tried to take one deep breath, but something was pressing on her lungs. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but she could only breath in a small amount of breath. She tried to open her eyes, but there was some dried crust, making it harder for her to open them. She wanted to use her hand to wipe it away, but that's when she realised she couldn't move her hand. Her eyes somehow managed to open by themselves. And that's when it all became clear to her. The reason she had trouble breathing was because somebody had chained her to the pillar she was leaning against. She looked at her right-hand side behind her, to see a rope was wrapped around her wrist. She looked at her left wrist and saw a rope was wrapped around it just as well. She looked at her Dino-brace. She couldn't be sure, but it looked like Ptera's mouth on the brace was duct-taped. Funny, Ranru thought to herself, there's tape on her Dino-brace, but for some reason there wasn't any on her own mouth. Which ever the reason to that, she needed to get out of these restrains. She looked in front of her as she struggled. Against the wall opposite her, she noticed a guy in dark blue clothes, save for a deep red shirt he wore. Like the first time she met him, his face was obscured by his hood. She recognised him as that red and black guy, only he isn't wearing his suit this time. He didn't do anything in particular, he just sat there watching her. Though there was only light from the moon, and some of the street lights, she couldn't help noticing he was shaking.

"Why are you keeping me here?" Ranru asked him.

The dark guy tilted his head up, but didn't reply to her.

"Listen to me!" Ranru started, "I don't know what you're planning to do with me, but I'm not your enemy!"

The dark guy looked away from her. He clearly couldn't care less about what she was saying.

"You wanted some company then?" Ranru thought it was a rediculous thought herself, but given the way he moved his head back to face her, she may be right about this after all, "If that's all you want, you didn't have to tie me up like this!"

For some reason, her words only made him breath heavier. Yet still, all he did was sitting where he sat.

Ranru relised she had to do something to win his confidence, and this was all she could think of: "That man in the Dark Armor, he kept calling you 'Al'. Is that you..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the dark guy got up, too quickly for her to have relised it before he had clenched his hand on her throat. It all happened too fast for her to percieve everything alltogether. She couldn't even be sure of what she saw then, but wether that was because of the dim lights or her ability, or lack thereof, to percieve things well, she didn't know. All she did know is that his teeth, which he was showing in his obvious sudden rage, were unusually large. Too large to be human!

Not knowing how else to react to this, Ranru tried to say: "O... okay... so you... hate... that name..."

His teeth returned to the normal human size, as he let go of her. Though he didn't appear to be cooled off either. He kept growling, as he started pacing up and down the room.

After she had regained as much of her breath as she could, she kept talking to him: "Well, you change into red and black... can I call you Akakuro?"

The dark guy stopped in his tracks and looked at her. Ranru could not see his eyes, but she assumed that this meant 'yes'.

"I'm Ranru!" she continued, although the dark guy had allready looked away from her. And even though he hadn't said a word ever since their first encounter, she was sure he could talk. She asked him: "Can you tell me who you are?"

Ranru could not see what the dark guy saw, after she asked him this question. He saw how he was walking through some kind of a jungle, barely able to stand on his feet. He saw something that looked like a dried out river. He waited for something to come, but everything went black before his eyes before it came. Other than that, he saw himself lying somewhere that looked like a hospital room. Though what he saw was blurry, he could make out someone behind the machines, who then returned, holding something in his hands. Something that looked like a wire, that was connected to the machines. He had but a vague idea of what it was, but he knew for sure that it was somehow vital to him.

"Akakuro-kun!" Ranru's voice brought him back to reality, "What's wrong?"

He growled again and turned his back to her. Ranru couldn't help but notice that he was shaking heavier than he did before. Whatever's going on in his mind, he was clearly suffering from it. Ranru offered to help: "I don't know what's wrong, but I'm sure I can help you! Just untie me, and I'll..."

He turned to look at her again. This sudden move of his got him to stand in the moonlight, so Ranru was sure of what she saw this time: his teeth were unusually large to be human. In her mind her question of who he is changed into a question of what he is. Nevertheless, she decided he had enough of her questions, so she remained silent for the rest of the night.

Even further away, on an unknown location, the Dark Armored Man had continued with some of his experiments. In his lab, all sorts of things could be found, that looked like arms, legs, heads,... all of which belonged to some Torinoid or a Giganoid once.

"Let's see what they will do if I let this loose on the city." the Man mumbled to himself.

* * *

Note: the dark guy/red and black guy/Akakuro (whichever name you prefer) is mine. Also, 'Akakuro' litterally means 'Redblack' 


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, inside the building in construction, where the dark guy is keeping Ranru, there wasn't enough to shield the inside from the sun yet, so all the light shone directly into Ranru's eyes, waking her up. Once she got used to the light shining directly into her face, she looked at the drak guy. His back was turned to her, as he was leaning onto the window's sill.

"You've been awake the whole night?" Ranru asked him, fully aware he wouldn't reply anyway, "Do you ever sleep?"

The dark guy looked down. Ranru could tell as much, given how his hood moved, so she continued: "You're afraid that that man with the Dark Armor will find you, right?"

The dark guy turned to look at her. She still couldn't see his eyes, but she was sure he wasn't looking at her angrily: "I can't imagine what he has done to you, but I know I can help you! Me and my friends can help you!"

He turned away from her. Ranru couldn't tell, but he had started to shake, but didn't entirely knew why himself either.

"Please." Ranru continued, "Just untie me and..."

She stopped, thinking that he may react violently again. But since he didn't, she decided to continue: "Just untie me, and we'll all figure something out!"

The dark guy didn't react, but Ranru knew that he was thinking it through. He turned around and approached her. She wasn't sure if he did this because he was going to do as she had pleed the whole time, or otherwise. He walked behind the pillar, did something to the chains that kept her restrained, and it suddenly let loose. Ranru could finally breath more freely. She also felt the rope on her wrists loosening, until she felt it no longer. Once she was sure she could move again, she tried to get up. After doing so, she rubbed her right hand wrist. The same thing she wanted to do to her left wrist, but her Dino-brace was in the way, so she took it off first. When she did, the dark guy tried to stop her.

"No!" Ranru tried to convince him, "It's all right!"

She took it off and rubbed her wrist. The dark guy, although Ranru still couldn't see his eyes, was surprised about something. He looked at his own Dino-brace, and tried to take it off too. When he did so, he suddenly couldn't stand on his own legs anymore. Quickly, he put it back on, but he still fainted.

"Akakuro-kun!" Ranru shouted.

She kneeled down beside him, trying to wake him up. But to no avail! She took off his hood. The first time she ever saw his eyes, and she only saw the white of it. She wanted to call for her friends, but saw that Ptera's mouth on her brace was still duct-taped. She removed the tape, and cried for help: "Ptera! Anyone! Can someone hear me?"

At the Dino-house, where it was too early in the morning for anyone to be awake, this sudden call from Ranru woke up Emeri, who hadn't left the screen in the past hours.

"Ranru!?" Ptera suddenly started, waking Emeri up.

"Huh... what... what's going on?" Emeri was still groggy.

"Ranru!" Ptera replied, "You're all right!"

"Never mind me!" Ranru insisted, "You've got to help! He..."

"What did he do to you?" Ptera asked her.

"Nothing!" Ranru replied, "He just... he fainted, and I don't know what's wrong with him!"

"Since he kidnapped you like that, I'd say..." Emeri started.

"Will you come and help allready!?" Ranru interrupted.

"I've got your location!" Emeri replied, after which she gave the location to Ptera, and added: "I'll go and wake up everyone else, you go and pick her up!"

"Roger that!" Ptera said, after which she took off, not caring if Brachio was allready awake or not to let her out.

Ptera got to Ranru: "There you are! What has happened..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed that Ranru was trying to carry someone.

"Is that...?" Ptera started, but couldn't finish her sentence.

But Ranru knew what she wanted to ask: "Yes! It's him!"

"What did you do to him?" Ptera asked, concerned.

"Nothing!" Ranru insisted, "Can you help me carry him?"

"Yes!" Ptera replied, "But..."

"Then do it!" Ranru interrupted.

Ptera held him, along with Ranru, in her beak, and carried them both back to the Dino-house.


	4. Chapter 4

Back at the unknown location, the Dark Armored Man was making one finishing touch to what he was working on. By assembling some very selective remains of most of the previous Torinoids and Giganoids, he created what he believed to be the ultimate monster ever. A smile crept on his face as he was about to release it onto Japan.

"Don't worry, Abarangers!" he whispered, although he knew that he couldn't be heard, "I will succeed with my plans! And there's nothing that can stop me!

Meanwhile, Ptera had returned Ranru, along with the dark guy, to the Dino-house. With the help of her comrades, she was able to take off his coat and lay him down in their own emergency room. Nakadai had examined him, but he could make only one conclusion.

"He's asleep." he said, "Looks to me like he hasn't slept in a while."

"Are you sure?" Ranru sounded more than concerned.

"Yes!?" Nakadai replied, questionningly, "Why?"

"Because he... I don't know..." Ranru began, but something kept her from saying anything.

"What exactly happened back there?" Asuka became impatient to know this.

"I... he took off his Dino-brace and..." Ranru began, "... and that's when he fainted!"

Not one person in the room understood this entirely.

"Are you saying that this guy can't take it off without fainting?" Yukito started, "That's a little weird."

"Wait!" Ranru remembered something else, "I was taking off mine first, and he tried to stop me! It's like he was afraid of something! But when he saw nothing happened he took off his, and..."

"That's when he fainted?" Emeri asked.

"That's when he started to get weak, yes!" Ranru answered.

"It sounds to me..." Ryouga started, "... that his Dino-brace somehow keeps him alive, and thought the same thing goes for us."

"But how?" Mahoro couldn't understand, "Those Dino-braces never did such things!"

"Maybe yours didn't." Yukito said flatly, "But perhaps this one wasn't made by Dino-Earthlings."

"So you mean..." Mahoro suddenly wondered, "... this one can do anything?"

"That man in the Dark Armor could recreate it, as well as bring back two dead people." Yukito answered, "We don't know what else he can do, or the things he makes!"

"Well, as long as we don't know anything for sure about this guy yet..." Nakadai started, "... he's still a danger to us all! We must take certain precautions!"

"What does that mean?" Ranru sounded more concerned than ever.

"He's right." Asuka agreed, "We don't know what he'll do when he wakes up. We need to keep him restrai..."

"NO!!!" Ranru suddenly jumped up.

"What?" Asuka was surprised, as was everyone else, "After what he's done, you're..."

"I don't care!" Ranru couldn't be convinced otherwise, "I can't let you do anything to him!"

Nakadai laughed: "I don't believe this. You're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome!"

Particulary the people from Dino-Earth had never heard of this, so Mahoro asked him: "What's Stockholm Syndrome?"

"It means that she has bonded with her captor!" Nakadai explained.

"How can you get bonded with someone who captured you?" Mahoro couldn't understand.

"I don't really blame her." Mai suddenly started, "He looks kinda cute!"

"Mai-chan!" Ryouga suddenly had to step in between, "It's not safe to be near him!"

"He's asleep!" Mai reasoned, "What can he do?"

"Not much!" Emeri assured her, as she suddenly held up some hand-cuffs, "Not if I can help it!"

Before Ranru could say anything, Emeri was allready on her way to the the dark guy.

"Wait!" Ranru started anyway, "If you do that, he'll never trust us!"

"And if we don't, he can attack us!" Ryouga reasoned, "We have no other option."

"Why do you carry those around anyway?" Mai asked.

As Emeri cuffed the dark guy's hands to the bed, she answered to Mai: "I'll explain when you're older."

Yukito did not know how she should feel about this: "I have given up on understanding her long ago."

"Look!" she told everuone, "As long as I keep the keys, nothing will happen!"

She put it in her left pocket, knowing for sure that nobody can reach there that easilly.

Not too long after this, Yatsudenwani entered the room.

"Is that him?" he asked, "Is he the one that..."

Nobody needed to hear the rest of his sentence to know what he was talking about, so Asuka said: "Yeas, he is."

Yatsudenwani did not hesitate to charge at the dark guy. Luckely for the latter, Ranru could jump in between: "No! Don't!"

"But he just took you away!" Yatsudenwani reasoned, "I can't..."

"Please don't attack him!" Ranru asked him, "Please don't... for me."

He didn't entirely understood why she'd defend him, but agreed anyway: "Aiai! I won't do anyhting to him! Only because you're asking me!"

Suddenly, the alarm sounded.

"The man in the Dark Armor?" Asuka wondered.

Allready, Emeri had started to look for the emergency: "It's weird! It's like all things are happening at once! Look!"

everybody looked at the screens. It looked like people were being turned into plants, perfumes, and lots of other things. Either that, or people started to wear colorful wigs, or having plants grow out of their heads. In other words, everything that the Abarangers had witnessed happening before is happening again.

"What's happening?" Ryouga asked.

"This is!" Emeri answered, as she showed them the screen upon which one giant monster was shown. Everyone knew what this monster was, but neither one had enough courage to say it out loud.

"Let's go and stop it!" Ryouga told everyone, as he lead the way out of the house.

His fellow Abarangers followed, but Ranru stayed behind for another second, and asked everyone: "Please, take care of him!"

"Don't worry!" Yatsudenwani replied, "I'll guard him with my life!"

Ranru smiled faintly, after which she ran out of the house too.


	5. Chapter 5

The Abarangers arrived at the scene, where the monster had shown himself. It had the appearance of a bat, of whom the wings looked like they were made out of metal, like those of an aeroplane, on top of it all it seemed to be as black as an egg plant. For some reason it had stopped attacking, but the Abarangers seemed to not relise as much.

"That's what's causing everything?" Ryouga wondered.

"But how could the man with the Dark armor have pulled this off?" Asuka questionned.

"Simple!" a voice answered, to which the Abarangers turn, to see the Dark Armored man, "With all those parts from the previous monsters left, I could easily create this clone."

"That's a clone?" Yukito asked him.

"Indeed!" the Dark Armored man replied, "Using some of my own genius to mix a bat, an aeroplane and an egg plant, and use some of those other monster's DNA to give it life. It's that simple."

"That explains why it can do everything the other ones could." Nakadai relised.

"And you!" the Dark Armored man pointed at Ranru, "The fact that you're here means that Al has let you go."

"Don't call him that!" Ranru yelled at him.

"Why shouldn't I!?" the man questionned, "It's his name!"

"He hates that name! That's why!" Ranru kept yelling.

"Nonsense!" the man disagreed, "He may look like an adult, even walk like one... But in his mind, he's not even older than a year. You have no way of understanding him!"

"What makes you think you do?" Ranru bit back.

"Because I know him!" the man replied, "I know exactly how he thinks. He misinterpreted something I did, and now he's confused. And you guys showing yourself like that only made it worse, for I always told him he's unique."

"Unique enough to know you're the enemy!" Ryouga reasoned.

"And yet he thinks the same about you guys too, doesn't he?" the man asked them.

Nobody, not even Ranru, seemed to know what to say to this.

"You have no choice." the man said, "Now you made this plan easier for me to accomplish, so I'll make it easy for you. Give Al back to me, and I'll spare the lives..."

"You can't have him back!" Ranru shouted at him, "I won't let you take him!"

"How touching." the man remarked, "Lemme ask you, how do you know he hates his own name? Did he tell you?"

Not seeing the relevance to this, Ranru hesitated to answer: "... No?!?"

"Off course not!" the man made his point, "Since he doesn't talk, you can't know what he..."

"Stop it!" Ranru continued.

"Will you two quit being sentimental!" Nakadai interrupted, "There's a monster here that needs to be taken care off."

"You won't have to, if you'd just..." the man started.

"But we can't let you be in control of him!" Ryouga interrupted, "We had to face one of our own once before, and we won't allow it to happen again!"

Everyone else nodded, to which the man said: "You'll regret this! Attack!"

That last word was adressed to the giant monster, whom started to attack the city again. The Abarangers didn't hesitate one second to change: "Bakuryuu Change!"

Meanwhile, at the Dino-house, Yatsudenwani had sat himself down by the dark guy's bed. On one hand he was worried about the Abarangers, but on the other, he felt bored since there wasn't more for him to do.

"Hey!" Mai suddenly entered the room, along with little Mikoto, "You wanna hear a story?"

Yatsudenwani looked at her, surprised: "A story?"

"I wanted to read Mikoto a story, but then I saw you were bored, so I thought I'd read it to you too."

"Oh! Sounds like fun!" Yatsudenwani couldn't be more happy, "Which is it?"

" 'The Lost World', by Arthur Conan Doyle." Mai replied, after which she whispered, "It's secretly my favorite book. But please, don't tell Ryou-chan, or else he'll think he must read it for me."

"Dont worry!" Yatsudenwani assured her, "He won't hear it from me!"

"And that goes for you too!" Mai told the dark guy.

"Who would he tell?" Yatsudenwani wondered.

"You can never be too sure." Mai replied, after which she opened her book, and started reading.


	6. Chapter 6

At the battlefield, the heroes were getting ready to fight.

"Brachio!" Abareblack called, "We need your help!"

"You use the power called courage." Brachio said, as he made his appearance.

He let go of all the needed Blastdragons, with which Abared, Abareblue and Abareyellow merged, to combine AbarenOh.

"Top Galer!" Abarekiller called, "You'd better assist them!"

"I'm on my way, Human." Top Galer replied.

Along with Stego, the three of them combined into KillerOh, and stood by AbarenOh to fight the monster. The latter started by making sonar rays, which immediatly immobilised AbarenOh. KillerOh could jump away to avoid that attack, and hauled out to him. The monster jumped, first to dodge the attack, then it turned back to sink it's teeth into KillerOh. What happened after that looked like it was draining the energy from KillerOh.

"Styraco!" Ryouga called.

Styraco appeared, rammed the monster and thereby helped KillerOh to get out of his situation.

"Unfortunately, you can't change into MaxOhJa without your shield!" Yukito stated.

"Doesn't matter." Ryouga cheered, "We're just fine now!"

Styraco was about to attack again, but the monster had allready flown towards him, with such a speed that when the two collided, it caused a powerful force that blew Styraco away.

"Or... not!?" Ryouga didn't seem so sure anymore.

Meanwhile, at the Dino-house, Mai had a good time telling both Mikoto and Yatsudenwani from 'The Lost World'. At a certain point, Emeri entered the room.

"Thought you guys might want some breakfast too." she said, as she put a tray with baked eggs down next to Mai.

"Thank you!" Mai thanked her.

Emeri smiled, after which she turned around. Suddenly, she didn't know why herself, but somehow the floor got slippery, causing her to trip over. Fortunately for her, the dark guy lay in her way, which helped her to break her fall.

"Now look what you've done!" Mai complained, "I told you it's gross to drool like that!"

Emeri looked down to the floor and noticed how wet it had become: "That's your drool?"

"I can't help it!" Yatsudenwani sounded sorry, "I just enjoy Mai's story!"

Emeri got back up, with a somewhat disgusted face. Once she was up, she searched the area around her left pocket.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked her.

Emeri looked at the dark guy's hands before replying: "I thought I felt a bug crawling here. I must have imagined it..."

That's when she saw Mikoto, trying to eat some of Yatsudenwani's drool: "Hey! Don't eat that!"

As she stopped Mikoto, Ryunnosuke's head popped into the room: "Everyone, something's wrong with Ryouga and the others!"

As soon as he said that, everyone left the room to look at the screens.

Ryunnosuke was right. The Abarangers could use all the Blastdragons they have, but the monster could still not be beaten.

"Why don't they form MaxRyuuOh?" Mai wondered, "Or anything else that can help!"

"They would if they could." Mahoro told her, "But Ryouga's shield is broken, so that's not possible right now."

"But I thought nothing is impossible with Dino Guts?" Mai couldn't understand.

"Well, why won't you tell that to that guy we've got in our infermary?" Emeri told her, "He'd love to..."

She stopped midsentence, as she looked into the room where the dark guy laid. He wasn't there anymore! The bed was empty, and the cuffs that kept him were still there.

"He's gone!" Emeri cried.

Everyone dropped their jaws, after which they too checked. Ryunnosuke was the first to take a closer look, only to see what helped him escape.

"How did he get his hands on the key?" he asked out loud.

Suddenly, Emeri remembered she felt a bug in the area around her left pocket, where she kept the key! That bug she felt wasn't a bug at all, it was the dark guy rumaging through her pocket looking for the key.

"That sneaky bastard!" Emeri cursed.


	7. Chapter 7

Despite all their efforts, the Abarangers were fighting a losing battle. The monster had taken all the Blastdragons down, and it didn't seem like there was any way the could get up again.

"It's way too strong." Abareblue moaned.

"At this rate..." Abareyellow tried to say, "... we'll lose!"

"Guys... pull yourself together!" Abared cheered them on, "We've survived worse!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, the monster had grabbed AbarenOh by his throat. He lifted up his other hand, balded like a fist, and was about to punch him. Suddenly, something grabbed the monster from behind him. The Abarangers could only see it's hands.

"What the...?" Abared couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The hands pulled the monster back and threw him away. Once the monster was out of sight, the Abarangers could see who or what saved them.

"Isn't that...?" Abareblue said.

"That's that Allosaurus!" Abared cried.

"Akakuro-kun..." Abareyellow whispered.

"Huh?" Abared looked at Abareyellow, "You named him?"

Meanwhile, a battle had evoked between the monster and the Allosaurus Blastdragon, in his humanoid form. The monster tried all of the attacks he had tried on the other Blastdragons before, but somehow this one knew how to avoid getting hit by any of them. Once the monster used all his attacks, it didn't know what else to do. Suddenly, much like a light appears when an Abaranger changes into Abare mode, a light engulfed this Blastdragon as well, somehow causing him to pump up. Once he was pumped up, he ran up to the monster, and with one swift move he destroyed the monster.

This surprised the other Abarangers so much, they all had their different opinions.

"I wonder why we never met him when I was working with Dezmozorlya." Abarekiller said.

"How could he get so strong like that?" Abareblack wondered.

"How did he escape from the Dino-house?" Abareblue asked.

"The same way he escaped from that man with the Dark Armor." Abareyellow guessed.

Speaking of which, the man in question shouted something to the Blastdragon: "Well done! Destroy him, so you can destroy them yourselves!"

The Blastdragon turned to look at the man in the Dark Armor. It changed back into the Allosaurus, as it moved itself closer to that man.

"Akakuro-kun! Don't!" Abareyellow cried.

That's when something else happened: the Allosaurus seemed to shrink into a smaller size. It's tail disappeared, it's hands seemed to grow more fingers, it's arms and legs seemed to grow longer as they grew smaller. It took a while for anyone witnessing this to realize that the Allosaurus was just changing into a human form, that of the red and black guy.

"What the...?" Abared couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

"So that Allosaurus wasn't his Blastdragon..." Abareblue stated.

"He actually is that Blastdragon!" Abarekiller finished for him.

"He can change at will?" Kera sounded envious.

The red and black guy stood before the Dark Armored man, who spoke: "That's right! Come home to me, Al!"

At the sound of that name, the red and black guy threw one of his tonfas to the man. The impact came as a surprise to the man, who immediately fell down.

"Wha... what's the matter with you, Al!?" the man asked.

The red and black guy grabbed the man by his throat and threw him to a nearby wall. After that, he used his tonfa to conduct a few moves that would be deadly to anyone who didn't wear such an armor. All this was enough for the Dark Armor to be deactivated, just as the five Abarangers arrived. They saw a man, around his forties, definitely not Asian. He had long black and greasy hair, and wore a white lab coat, or at least one that was white once but has started to turn gray and black with dirt. After the man's suit disappeared, the red and black guy undid his suit as well, revealing the dark guy with his long coat and dark hood, whom Ranru had named Akakuro earlier.

"So you're the man behind it all!" Abareblack said.

"Now look what you've done!" the man said, "Now they know what I look like! How could you do this to me, Al? After all..."

"Shut up!" the dark guy shouted at him.

All of the Abarangers were surprised. Abared was the first to speak: "He can talk?"

"Why didn't he do so earlier?" Abareblue wondered.

"Now, Al, I don't know what's got..." the man started, but at the mention of the name 'Al', the dark guy grabbed him by his throat again and helped him up the wall.

"Doyle is my name now!" the dark guy said.

Both Abareyellow and the man were surprised to hear this, but it was the man who spoke: "You're discarding your own name?"

"I'm not!" the dark guy, or Doyle, said, "Al was never my name!"

"Neither was Doyle!" the dark man said.

"Doesn't matter to me!" Doyle stood his ground on this, "I'm no longer your little experiment, therefor I am whoever I want to be!"

The dark man appeared infuriated by this: "Fine! Go ahead and join these losers! See if I care!"

He punched Doyle in the face, which didn't seem to affect him much. He threw the dark man away, after which he said: "You forgot how strong you made us!"

Though the voice came from Doyle, it sounded like somebody else spoke. Abareblue was the first to comment on that: "Us?"

"How can he be two people at once?" Abareblack asked.

"He wouldn't have a split personality, would he?" Abarekiller wondered.

The dark man looked at Doyle, furious because of his defeat: "Don't think this is over... AL!!!"

The dark man seemed to press a button and disappeared into thin air.

"You'd better run!" Doyle called after him, just as furiously.

Abareyellow, who undid her suit, ran to him and tried to calm him down: "It's OK. He's gone now."

Doyle breathed heavily, but was cooling off. Suddenly, he trembled on his feet again, and fell down.

"Akakuro-kun!" Ranru shouted despite herself.

The other Abarangers, who had undone their suits just as well, ran to them.

"What happened?" Ryouga asked.

"I don't know!" Ranru cried, "He didn't even take off his Dino-brace!"

Doyle, though still in pain, looked at her surprised: "What's a Dino-brace?"

Nakadai, meanwhile, had looked at where Doyle kept his hands. Then he asked, pointing to where his hands were: "Are you feeling pain there?"

"Not really." Doyle replied, "More some kind of warmth."

Nakadai laughed out loud, causing Ranru to ask, angrily: "What's so funny?"

"He's just hungry!" Nakadai replied.

Everyone else fell down, realizing how stupid they looked, being concerned over nothing.

"So is everyone else!" Doyle remarked.

"Know a place where we can eat?" Doyle's Dino-brace suddenly spoke.

Though everyone recognized the voice that spoke earlier, nobody understood how this was possible.

"I thought you and that Blastdragon were one and the same!?" Yukito said.

Doyle looked confused: "What's a Blastdragon?"


	8. Chapter 8

Back at the Dino-house, Ryunnosuke had prepared something for Doyle to eat. And lots of it, for he appeared to not have eaten much for a long time. He even seemed to have forgotten how to use chopsticks, so he ate with either a fork or a spoon, depending on what it is he had to somehow put into his mouth. For a while, all was quiet, as everyone had lots of questions to ask him, but since he was to busy eating, nobody really dared to talk. Doyle didn't seem to notice, that or he simply didn't care. He's remained mute for a long time himself, therefor he has no reason to complain himself if people don't talk around him.

Once he had finished his upteenth dish, he asked: "Got any more?"

Everyone fell down when he said as such, to which his Dino-brace said: "Why can't anybody stand on their legs for too long?"

"You're asking me!?" Doyle responded, "I only just know these folks myself!"

"It's your fifth dish allready!" Emeri complained, "Haven't you had enough?"

Doyle had a puzzled look on his face, after which Ryunnosuke decided to say: "It'll take a while before I've made any more, so..."

He motionned to the other people that this is their best chance to talk. Hence, Ryouga began: "So... Doyle... Who are you exactly?"

"Wish I'd know myself." Doyle replied, "Every now and then, we remember some things..."

"Hold on..." Yukito interrupted, "What's all that 'we' stuff?"

"He means him and me." the Dino-brace answered.

"Now that's exactly what I don't understand!" Yukito still wasn't satisfied, "Why do you keep talking as if you're two different people?"

Neither Doyle or the Dino-brace seem to understand his question, so Nakadai decided to elaborate: "He means you shift from being human into being a Blas... dinosaur, but it seems like you're each somebody different, rather than just one man."

Doyle put his hands on his head, as if he was suffering from some kind of a headache. Before anyone else could be concerned over what caused this, Nakadai decided to ask for something else: "I'm sorry. Why won't you tell us everything you know about that dark man?! That man who kept calling you Al."

Doyle's headache seemed to simmer down. Once he felt any better, he began: "His name is Hammond. He's a paleonthologist, chemist, and a whole lot of other things which I can't exactly remember."

"And what's your connection to him?" Ryouga asked him.

Doyle didn't seem to know much of an answer to that question. All he could do was to recall his first memory.

He remembered to wake up. Whatever he was lying down on, he did not know. What he did know was that it was cold, and that the room was draughty. He opened his eyes, only to see he was inside a large room. Safe for some kind of machinery, which meant nothing to him, that was nothing else. Suddenly, a man came inside. It was the dark man, now known as Hammond.

"It worked!" he said, "You're alive!"

Doyle looked at the man, somehow knowing he should know him but for some reason he couldn't put the finger on it. He looked at him trying his best to remember.

Hammond seemed to have noticed as much, so he asked: "Can you say your name to me?"

Doyle knew the answer had to be obvious, but for some reason nothing would come to mind.

Hammond did his best to hide his enthousiasme, through asking more seemingly concerned questions: "Can you tell me your age? Can you tell me anything at all?"

Doyle couldn't answer, but for some reason he knew that even if he could he wouldn't want to. There was something about this man he didn't trust.

"No matter." Hammond said, "Given everything, why won't I call you Al. You like that name?"

Doyle did not reply. He did not even nod or shake his head. Eitherway, Hammond took it as a yes: "Good! Now if you'd follow me... we have some great things to do. And it is only your uniqueness that can help us.

Once Doyle had told them this, Asuka was the first to talk: "Your uniqueness? What does that mean?"

"He told me things." Doyle answered, "Of how he discovered the existence of a different Earth, this Dino-magic, the Super-Dino's,..."

"Dino-Earth, Dino Guts and Blastdragons?" Mahoro asked him.

"Er..." Doyle seemed confused again, "Dino-Earth, yes, but what's Dino Guts? And what are Blastdagons?"

Not everybody understood why Doyle seemed so oblivious to whatever they kept talking about. Emeri, who had it all figured, said: "Hammond may use different names than we do."

"I think what she tried to say..." Ryouga explained, "... was that what you know as Dino-magic is really called Dino Guts, and those Super-Dino's are really Blastdragons."

Doyle was still puzzled, but his Dino-brace convinced him: "Let's just play along, so to avoid confusion."

"Great idea." Doyle replied, after which he continued: "As I was saying... back at some museum in... Wyoming, or something, there was a dinosaur skeleton which seemed to have some Dino-mag... Guts with him. Closer study showed that it had some great potential to do great things. Before he knew it, one of it's bones had transported him to another world."

"A dinosaur-bone in Wyoming did that?" Yukito was surprised, "Dino Guts must have existed much longer than we thought."

"He had found a world in which dinosaurs still existed." Doyle continued, uninterruptedly, "And in which they had even evolved into some kind of Super-Dino's."

"Which we know as Blastdragons." Asuka interrupted.

"He had studied them for a while..." Doyle ignored Asuka, "... he even found one that had been human once, for reasons he doesn't know."

"So he had met me, but I didn't know?" Kera sounded upset about this.

"It's allready weird how he could at all enter Dino-Earth without us noticing." Tyranno said.

"Do you guys want me to tell the story, yes or no?" Doyle had enough of these constant interruptions.

For some reason, everyone looked at Ranru, who hadn't said a word the whole time. She merely nodded, after which Ryouga said: "Sorry. So he has studied the Blastdragons. And then what?"

"It is every paleonthologist's dream to one day see a real dinosaur, so he wanted to use the bone again to transport him and one Super-Dino back to Earth. But for some reason, the bone didn't have enough power to do so. It only had enough to transport him back alone."

Doyle paused, appearantly expecting them to interrupt again. Since they didn't, he continued. "With everything he found out about these dinosaurs, he thought he could use some kind of mixture of cloning techniques and Dino-magic to bring this dinosaur back to life as a Super-Dino, so it'll make him more of that magic.

"Which failed at his first attempt." the Dino-brace said, "It was... or rather, I was too old a fossil for this to work."

"Wait a minute!" Asuka interrupted, "So you're that dinosaur he used?"

"Yes." the Dino-brace answered.

"So he used some form of cloning?" Nakadai seemed particularly shocked.

"One against, as Hammond puts it, all rules of physics." Doyle replied, "The clone would be as ald as the one he's cloning is. Or rather was. And thanks to the Dino-magic, it'll have the same soul as the first one."

"It was something he thought that couldn't go wrong, but he didn't know that it couldn't work on something old, like me." the Dino-brace said.

"That was when something came from the skies, like falling stars." Doyle continued, "It looked like remains from a human, as well as one of those Super-Dino's. It also had... something he didn't know, but was enough for him to create an armor for himself."

"So he found..." Yukito seemed to have difficulties to comprehend this, "... he found your and Top Galer's remains, cloned you, and recreated the Dark Armor?"

"And somehow, he must have found a way to stabalize your Dino-minder!" Asuka realized.

"So..." Nakadai had some difficulties himself, "I'm a clone, but I'm still really me? Not just a copy of myself?"

Doyle didn't know what he was talking about: "You're that other guy he mentionned? In that case, yes you are."

Nakadai sighed of relief, after which Doyle continued: "Anyhow, these two seemed to have enough Dino-magic to make it work. Also, he found out that somehow a gate had opened here in Japan, so he thought he should move over here, where the gateway would be at it's weakest."

"But when he tried to open the gate..." Ryouga sighed, "... instead something else happened."

"Yes." Doyle replied, "Instead of opening a gate to the other Earth, it created something that would break away the walls that keeps them apart."

Clearly, this wasn't what anyone in the room expected to hear. They thought that Hammond had somehow opened a gate to the realm of the dead, but it turns out something else really happened.

"Are you saying... that now he's trying to make Dino-Earth and Ano... and this Earth into one Earth?"

"That's why everyone appeared as ghosts around here!" Emeri suddenly decided, "What we saw were really the people who were walking on Dino-Earth, just like you saw people from our Earth walking on Dino-Earth."

"It was just step one of the two Earths becoming one again." Yukito realized.

Since everyone started talking about something else, Doyle turned his head around. Ryouga stopped him however: "Wait a minute! You still haven't told us what you have to do with this!"

Annoyed, Doyle continued: "It didn't work with that other guy and his Super-Dino. The machine he used to take their Dino-magic, shut itself down, once the two fell unconscious. After a while they even found a way out of the building."

"You mean he escaped?" Ryouga asked.

"He didn't say he escaped, but we knew he wasn't telling us everything." Doyle replied.

"He did say that his only hope to bring both Earths back together was if he could bring me to life..." the Dino-brace continued, "But to do that he needed some kind of medium."

"Which means...?" Asuka asked him.

"As far as I can tell..." Nakadai replied for him, "... that dinosaur can only live through a human body. Doyle in this case."

"Yes." Doyle sighed.

"But why did he pick you?" Emeri asked him.

"Because I was dying." Doyle answered.

"So he saved your life!?" Emeri almost sounded as if she admired Hammond.

"I don't know." Doyle replied, "I seem to remember being at a hospital, seeing him go behind the machines, and take something away from there. Then I can't see anything but darkness."

Nakadai seemed shocked to hear this: "You're saying... he pulled the plug on you!?"

Doyle didn't say anything, but somehow everyone knew that this counted as a yes. Everyone, save for the ones who aren't familiar with the expression "pull the plug".

"What do you mean by that?" Asuka asked.

"Do you know how sometimes machines can't work if they're not plugged in?" Nakadai asked him, waited for him to nod then continued: "Sometimes it happens that people need machines to stay alive, but if you pull out the plug then..."

Both Asuka and Mahoro were shocked too. Doyle continued: "As soon as he had readied the machine, he connected us to it, so he could open the gate again. But that machine... it hurt so much... we knew... we could not survive this. That's when we broke free and ran away from him. He shouted after us, calling us by that stupid name he gave us, but we didn't come back. We ran as fast as we could. And then... well I think you know what happened then."

Everyone fell silent. It was shocking to know that a man on this Earth could find a way in and out of Dino-Earth, but also disturbing to hear that he'd go through any length to fullfill the paleonthologist's dream. Even if it meant to kill someone.


	9. Chapter 9

"Plain out of curiosity..." Yatsudenwani suddenly started "... but why did that Hammond guy start calling you Al?"

"Dunno." Doyle replied, "I doubt that it was my own name when I was alive."

"So it must have been my name then." the Dino-brace said.

Suddenly, a light bulb began to shine in Ryouga's head: "Wait a minute! You're Big Al?"

Doyle began shaking, as the Dino-brace whined: "You're gonna start calling me that too!?"

"Who's Big Al?" Yukito asked.

"Only the most famous dinosaur-fossil ever found!" Ryouga answered enthusiastically, "It was a Allosaurus skeleton, which had so many traces which indicated he suffered from lots of wounds, leading scientists to believe he lived a rough life. Through that, the Allosaurus earned the nickname Big Al!"

"If he had Dino Guts..." Yukito realized, "... it could be that he used it throughout his life, one way or another leading to those injuries."

"And you're that Big Al?" Asuka asked the Dino-brace.

"I don't know." it replied, "I don't remember much from my life before."

"Nor do I." Doyle added, "When we woke up, it even took us a while to know that we were really two entities, forced to live as one. Lots of things went through us, but we didn't know which one of us was feeling it, nor did we know how to deal with them."

Mahoro sounded concerned when she asked: "So... you don't remember anything? Anything at all? Either one of you?"

"Nope." was Doyle's somewhat depressing answer.

"Then, may I ask..." Nakadai started, "... why do you call yourself Doyle?"

"Or for that matter..." Ryouga added, "... where did you get that name?"

Doyle looked away from them, only to see the door behind the counter, where Mai stood. She read from Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" earlier, so Doyle had decided to claim the writer's name as his own. But since Mai owned that book in secret, he decided to answer: "I... I dunno. Every now and then I remember some things from my past. I guess Doyle must be one of those things."

He only just caught a glimpse of Mai smiling. So he didn't break the promise of not telling anyone, which made her glad.

"Well then..." Ryouga started, "Since you've got a name for yourself, the Allosaurus still needs one as well."

Nobody seemed to notice that Doyle started to shake, so Ryouga continued: "What if we'd call him Allos? Sounds great, right?"

"And for your henshined form..." Yukito added, "How about Abare... what should we call him?"

"Well, since he has a red and black suit..." Ryouga considered, "How about Abaredevil?"

"I still think the name Allos isn't any good." Asuka remarked.

"And maybe Ranru's grandfather can make him another jack, like he did for us!" Ryouga added.

"STOP IT!" Doyle screamed, as he had already tried to block his ears from the conversation that went on. Though they had stopped arguing, they started to ask him all kinds of questions, which made him grow only more impatient with them, so he left the house.

Ranru, who had been silent the whole time, decided to get up and follow him. Before she left everyone, she said: "Now look what you've done!"

As Ranru had left the room, Ryouga asked: "Nakadai-sensei, what do you think of him?"

"Well..." Nakadai answered, "His collective memory allows him to understand some adultish words, but he's still acting like a child. And seeing how he reacted to use now, as well as before, he may be mentally unstable."

"Any more than you once were?" Yukito asked flatly.

Nakadai snickered as he answered: "Yes, actually."

"So should we be worried?" Asuka wondered.

"That..." Nakadai replied, "... I can't tell just yet."

Doyle didn't ran too far away. He sat on a bench at a nearby park. Ranru found him there, only seconds away from sobbing, but as usually breathing heavily. He was still wearing his long coat, but not his hood. Somehow, the absence of the hood made his breathing seem more pity full then when he wears it. Slowly, almost as if approaching a wild animal, Ranru came to him.

"Akakuro-kun?" she called at him.

Doyle turned his head to look at her. Ranru, unlike she did before, wasn't at all startled at this sudden move.

"Mind if I sit with you?" she asked him.

Doyle merely looked away from her, which she took as a 'yes' and she sat with him.

"You were acting on instincts before, weren't you?" she started.

Doyle looked at her, wondering what she was talking about, after which she elaborated: "When you kidnapped me?! You remember?"

Doyle looked away from her again as he answered: "Something went through me as you came closer to me. I wasn't sure what it was that I felt. It felt weird, yet somehow familiar. I did what I did because... it seemed the best thing to do at the time."

"And what about duct-taping my Dino-brace?" Ranru pointed to him what she meant by Dino-brace, as he looked her again in utter ignorance, then she continued, "How did you know it would cut me off from everyone else?"

"I didn't." Doyle replied, "It just kept talking, and I wanted it to shut up."

"It?" Ptera said through Ranru's Dino-brace, "I am not just some thing for you to call..."

"Ptera!" Ranru interrupted, "Could you just leave us alone for a moment, please?"

When she didn't hear from Ptera anymore, she continued to talk: "Look, I'm not gonna pretend to understand what you've been going through with that Hammond, but do understand that we want what's best for you."

"So everyone starts talking about how to call me differently!" Doyle can't seem to cool down one bit.

"No! That's not it at all!" Ranru tried to convince him, "It's just that... well, everyone can call you whatever you want them to call you. But when we want to talk to the Allosaurus instead of you... well, he just needs a different name than you."

"In that case..." the Dino-brace said, "How about everyone calls me Roxton?"

"Roxton?" Ranru was surprised to hear his choice of names, but gave in anyway, "Roxton it is then. But... much I call myself Abareyellow when I've changed, you need a name like that too.

"I did kinda like that Abaredevil thing that Ryouga said." the Dino-brace, or Roxton, said.

"Abaredevil it is then." Doyle finally said.

"You know Ryouga's name?" Ranru was surprised to hear him refer to the red guy by name.

"You'd be amazed about what you'd pick up if you're not to busy talking yourself." Doyle stated.

"So you know all our names?" Ranru asked.

"Yes, I do." Doyle replied.

Ranru smiled, "That saves us the trouble to introduce ourselves to you then, Akakuro-kun."

For a moment, it appeared as though Doyle was about to lose his temper again: "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Because..." Ranru replied, "I don't care what name you give yourself, you're still the same Akakuro-kun that I got to know before anyone else."

"I never said I like you to call me that." Doyle said.

"And you never said you didn't either!" Ranru remarked.

Doyle went silent after that, to which Roxton said: "She got you there! Doesn't she?!"

"Oh... shut up!" Doyle whined to Roxton.

Ranru smiled again: "Glad to say you loosened up a little now. Come on, let's get back to everyone!"

She grabbed his right hand and dragged him back. As she did that, Doyle had no idea how he should feel about this gesture, but did know that he shouldn't kidnap her this time.

**THE END**


End file.
